this happened. clearly someone no longer deserves an iPhone. my less than a year old 5s iPhone. I’ve ordered a new screen, borrowed the proper tools from a neighbor, and will spend a few hours changing it out. a shard of glass was in my foot, probably all day sunday, monday & finally I removed it after zumba on tuesday evening.
anyone have case recommendations? the unfortunate thing is I need access to the AUX since I use this when teaching and most of the heavy-duty cases make it nearly impossible. but maybe I’m wrong (please tell me I’m wrong!!!)
Today is an end of an era for me – it’s my last day working as the head photographer for Princeton Seminary. I joined the Communications office right after we moved to Princeton in 2008, first with office work and then moved into photography in April 2009. I was privileged to interact with both presidents, faculty, staff, students and families of PTS over my time here. There are some wonderful changes happening within the school and it lead perfectly for me to resign. Now on to more adventures!!!
We know better than most how costly it is to fly to visit family+friends, as we’ve been traveling back to Oklahoma for 9+ years now. Family visits to see us are rare due to how expensive it is. Last summer, Anthony’s brothers talked about coming up to celebrate graduations/acceptances (Noah graduated high school, Taylor started medical school), but time got the best of all of us. We were able to finally get them up here this summer! We spent 3.5 days visiting Philly, NYC, Princeton + Six Flags Great Adventure as well as celebrating their birthdays. The boys have “birthday week” – Taylor’s birthday is July 15th, Noah’s is 18th and Anthony’s is the 20th. While it was a week later than the normal celebration, it was still the perfect time to have ice cream birthday cake from Halo Fete, the patisserie part of Halo Pub/Halo Farm business. (ignore the 1, 2, 3 candles – it’s what I had so we went with “birth order”).
The boys + I are avid roller coaster fans (years back we spent a week at Cedar Point in Ohio together!). It made complete sense to visit Six Flags – it’s only 20ish minutes from our place! The weather was absolutely perfect, especially for a mid-July afternoon. The lines weren’t too terrible. We were able to ride all the rides we set out too, including finishing the day on the best rollercoaster in the world, Kingda Ka. It’s also happens to be the tallest in the world + the fastest in North America. When we visited Cedar Point back in 2006, Top Thrill Dragster held both of those records. We rode that coaster many times over, though Noah was still a tad young back then and didn’t ride it. I believe he was only 12. This go round, being 20, he was game. The wait was 2 hours, by the time we got onto the platform, it was pitch dark! We thought we had timed it perfectly, that Anthony+Taylor would be in the 2nd to front row, while Noah+I would be right behind them. Last minute someone came up on the other side, grabbed the seats that Noah+I were slated to grab. That was probably the one ride that I would have wished we’d all been able to ride together. Funny how that works out. It should also be mentioned that our very first ride, the Superman, I lost the keys to our car. They flew out faster than I was able to grab them. 🙁 I texted a friend, she broke into our apartment, grabbed A’s set of keys, and brought them to us. It was a very kind gesture and we are forever indebted to her! Luckily I received a phone call the following evening that they found my keys. YAY!!
We also drove up to Staten Island, had lunch at Pizzeria Giove (seriously if you are ever looking for amazing pizza, go to Pizzeria Giove!!!!), took the ferry over to NYC, walked around the 911 Memorial Park, then entered the museum. I knew that I was going to be emotional going through the museum, though the creators did a beautiful and tasteful job. If you ever are in the area, I’d highly recommend seeing it.
We’ve been huge fans of homemade chicken stock in this house. It’s simple to make, easy to freeze, and full of minerals and nutrients that you cannot get from store-bought stocks. Don’t be intimated by stock, I promise if I can do it, you can too.
Normally I hold off on making stock until I have enough bones and vegetables to make two pots (I have a bag in the freezer for this). If you are going to go through the process, why not just double it? I use filtered water from our Berkey (I eye ball this and will add more water if needed).
How to make homemade chicken stock
- Round up plenty of bones (I typically add a carcass per pot), meat+fat is fine
- Vegetable scraps, including onions, carrots, celery, leeks, broccoli (hard lesson learned, do not add bell peppers). I rarely buy vegetables for stock, just use whatever is going bad or the last bit that you’d rarely use in a recipe.
- Enough water to cover bones & vegetables
- 10 whole peppercorns
- Fresh parsley (about a 1/4 cup)
- I don’t add salt to my stock, as I’d rather be able to control that when I use the stock later on in recipes.
Place all ingredients into pot, bring to a boil, then simmer for 4-8 hours (the longer the better, to release all the yummy nutrients from the bones). Turn off and allow to come to room temperature (most times I allow it to stay on the stove overnight covered with a lid). I then strain it once through a colander, then through cheese cloth to remove all the extra bits. From there, I either place the stock directly into freezer baggies (about 2 cups in each) or into jars to be used that week. It will keep up to a year, though we never get to that point.
Homemade chicken stock is perfect for making rice (use half stock, half water), in soups & stews and really any recipe that calls for liquid. I know there are people on the interwebs that drink a cup of homemade stock a day for the added nutrients. When Anthony had a major UC flareup in April, he depleted our entire freezer by only drinking stock for a week.
While traveling to England twice now, there are a few tips that we learned (some the easy way, some the hard way).
- Salad = lettuce on a burger/sandwich. Dressing = condiment that goes on said burger/sandwich
- It’s a rare occasion when a drink will be refilled without an additional fee. It’s always best to get tap water.
- Don’t expect the same type of service in restaurants as you receive in America. Servers are paid well and do not expect tips. Basically, they can give you shitty service since they aren’t working for a tip. There were several times that I just had to go up to the server to ask for our check and pay right on the spot, or else we would have been sitting there for another 20 minutes or more.
- You must pack an umbrella or two and ALWAYS have it on your person. Also, it wouldn’t hurt to have rain coats as well.
- Be sure to notify your bank/credit card companies that you will be out of the country. Luckily we’ve never been flagged but I can imagine the horror! Also, make sure you know about any additional fees associated with conversion rates. There are many credit cards that offer zero percentage, unfortunately we don’t have one of those gems.
- Along the same lines as knowing the fees associated, make sure you know the exact conversion rate. I had checked it about a week before we left but it looks like I went to a site that was out of date. It was a shock when looking at our bank account and seeing that a £100 = $171. YIKES!!!
- If traveling throughout London, get an Oyster card for every member traveling. Then once you know you’re finished traveling, turn that card back in. They will return all monies on it + the £5 deposit in whatever way you paid. One of our cards had cash, the other credit. When we got to Heathrow, we thought we were doing well on getting rid of paper+coins. We now have at least £10 just hanging out in the drawer.
- Never, never, never forget nail clippers. I have a pair in many bags, toiletries, my car even, but we somehow didn’t have a pair when we got there this year. The pair we bought were way too expensive but it was a necessary item for both of us. Stupid mistake!
- We’ve ended up staying at many different kinds of hotels, B&Bs, and apartments. It doesn’t matter where you stay, they do not believe in sheets or wash clothes. I feel like neither exist. This go round, I made sure to pack a few wash clothes. Lesson learned.
- If you can, I’d bring along at least two convertors. We luckily have multiple friends that we are able to borrow them from and it makes charging phones at night a breeze!
- As a photographer, and one that travels with my camera equipment, I found that the Lowepro Photo Hatchback 22L*, was the perfect bag for our travels. It held my Canon 5DM3, the 85L + the 16-35L with no problems. There is so much room in the front to hold wallets, rain jacket, mints, etc. + there are two side pockets to hold water + the umbrella. My favorite part (that I didn’t realize would be until we got there!!!) is the storm-flap closure. This came in great handy at Stonehenge in the sideways rain!!!
- We never paid for Wi-Fi. Typically I kept an eye on the location of the nearest McDonald’s. There is also a service called “The Cloud” that if you register an email address, you very well may get 30 minutes up to a few hours at a location (at underground stops, bus stops, etc.).
Do you have any tips or experiences while traveling abroad? Please share in the comments!
*link is affiliate.
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